The October Sunrise & Operation HotDish

See these balls to the left? They’re the delicious, steamed ham-style seitan recipe from Taymer Mason’s Caribbean Vegan cookbook. They’re smoky, they’re sweet, they’re spicy (how could I not add a big pinch of cayenne?) they’re chewy, and they were diced and pan-fried as part of an entirely inappropriately named October Sunrise casserole at Saturday’s Operation HotDish. I can justify the namesake because who doesn’t want to eat sun-colored macaroni and cheese on a gloomy fall day? Come on.

The main components of this crazy indulgent casserole at the crazy packed potluck and competition were wagon wheels smothered with 3 different cheesy sauces. I based the primary cheesy element on this recipe for Who Cares Vegan Mac and Cheese (which has two separate sauces!!) from the 2009 SF Mac Battle Royal with Cheese, which seems to be based on the VegNews nooch-less creation. And because this layer sat in the fridge overnight and was looking a little dry, I spooned a batch of garlickly nutritional roux sauce on top of it before layering it up some more.